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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28189080">Sweet Apple Tea</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minunlike/pseuds/Minunlike'>Minunlike</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Puyo Puyo (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Domestic, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, tiny hints of angst?, will become bigger angst if I decide to continue</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:55:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,695</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28189080</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minunlike/pseuds/Minunlike</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tee attempts to adjust to life with the Andous in Suzuran after a happy(?) accident strands him there.<br/>Ringo does everything she can to support him in this.</p><p>Culture Shock ensues for both.</p><p>[a series of oneshots that I may add to over time, as the teerin drive strikes me.]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ringo Ando/Tee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>70</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I started writing this back before puyo tetris 2 was even announced, but thankfully it's still fairly compliant with the new canon! since ppt2 has kept up the support for teerin (and in fact Added to it!), I felt motivated to start this AU for two reasons.</p><p>1. an excuse to post more teerin fic, which is somehow Still Pretty Scarce despite the ship's popularity and canonicity</p><p>2. an excuse to dump my arbitrary personal headcanons about the tetris kingdom as a whole and how its society functions</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>To be perfectly fair, she should have been prepared for culture shock the minute she decided to fall in love with a boy from outer space.</p><p> </p><p>Even now it sounded so weird to say that out loud, didn’t it? It sounded like a fanciful story someone would dream up to make themselves seem cooler or less lonely than they really were. If she went back in time and told her past self about it, Past Ringo would probably laugh until she choked.</p><p>And yet here he was, with her. Right here, right now. This was her new reality.</p><p>But honestly, at the end of the day... she was just overjoyed that he’d come back. </p><p>After thinking she’d finally come to terms with the thought that they would never see each other again, coming home to the sight of a very familiar-looking spaceship taking up three entire parking spaces right in front of their family store was, without a trace of irony, the best thing to happen to her.</p><p>“It was j-just an unexpected stroke of luck on my end,” he frantically explained over the impatient car horns. “I was making some adjustments to the autopilot of my personal scout ship to optimize travel time between some of our predetermined flight paths, and the routers must have, uh… detected the residual energy from your world on one of those trinkets you gave me before you went home. And, well, that sort of caused the new system to <em> somehow </em> open a wormhole directly linking both of our worlds all on its own. I guess you could call it a… a breakthrough, of sorts! Yeah! Ahaha-”</p><p>She wouldn't even pretend she understood a word of that technical jargon. None of it meant a single thing to her in that moment. All she cared about was running to him and tackle-hugging him with everything she had, because who knew when she'd get the chance again…?</p><p>“Tell me about it later, okay? Right now, let’s just find you a better parking space before your ship gets <em> towed </em>…”</p><p> </p><p>~~~</p><p>A couple of hours and several disgruntled customer complaints later, they were finally settled in the living room with some warm, relaxing cups of tea.</p><p>"Alright… now let's go over all this again."</p><p>And so Tee went over all of it again. It still made no more sense to Ringo now when he explained it calmly than it had the first time when he’d shouted it at her, but she nodded all the same once he was finished.</p><p>“So, in short,” she sighed and held her temples, “something <em> weird </em> and <em> stupid </em> happened again. And now we just kinda have to live with it until we can sort things out.”</p><p>Tee nodded back with a sheepish little laugh. “More or less…”</p><p>“Mmhm,” Ringo nodded back to his nod with a teasing look of unamusement. “And that means you’re also gonna need a place to <em> live </em>while we’re living with it, right?”</p><p>“W-Well, I can just sleep on the ship!” he suggested with a bit too much eagerness. “It’s more than suitably equipped for sleep, and I have my own hygiene equipment installed in there, so-”</p><p>“Okay, wait,” Ringo cut in. “Hygiene stuff is fine, but you really shouldn’t <em> sleep </em> out there.” </p><p>Tee stared back at her with a face so cluelessly innocent it was almost hilarious. “Why not?”</p><p>“Well, for one, doing that around these parts could get you arrested. Especially if your vehicle doesn’t have the proper, um… paperwork.” Which his vehicle most definitely did not. “And for two, my dad would probably <em> kill </em> me if he knew I let you do that.” </p><p>When he continued to look thoroughly confused, she cleared her throat and prepared her Stern Father Impression. </p><p>“<em>Young lady, you will not invite your boyfriend to stay in this household overnight if you intend to make him sleep outside in his Car</em>!”</p><p>Tee sputtered and nearly choked on his tea, glancing absently around as if he were deciding which part of that sentence he should address first. Going by his suddenly beet-red face, she had a good feeling about-</p><p>“B-But it’s a <em> ship</em>! A personal scout ship, to be exact!”</p><p>(Bzzt, so much for that…)  She saw him open his mouth to ask her what a car was, and stopped him short by grabbing his hand and pulling him toward her bedroom door.</p><p>“Look, my parents already said you could stay for tonight, so I’ll just break out the extra futon and you can sleep in my room, okay? We’ll come up with a more long-term plan tomorrow.”        </p><p>He reached back for his still-half-full teacup as she led him away. “But what about my tea-”</p><p>“We’ll come back for it after I get your bed set up.”</p><p>“But it’ll be-”</p><p>“<em>Move it</em>, Captain!”</p><p>~~~</p><p>She had to admit she felt a bit weird letting Tee into her room like this. Maguro was the only other boy… well, actually, the only other person <em> ever </em> to stay the night in here with her. There was nothing lying around that she’d feel particularly embarrassed to have him find, but there really was no telling with boys, was there? Especially <em> space </em> boys…</p><p>And sure enough, she watched with utter silent bewilderment as he stepped in, saw her open closet door, and immediately walked straight into the closet without even glancing at anything else.</p><p>Okay, maybe she was <em> kind of </em> embarrassed now.</p><p>“T-Tee, what… what are you doing…?”</p><p>He, on the other hand, sounded completely nonchalant. “Hm? This is your sleep compartment, isn’t it?”</p><p>“Whuh…” How the <em> heck </em> was she supposed to respond to this? “Tee, that’s uh... my closet…”</p><p>“Your what?”</p><p>“My <em> closet</em>, Tee. Where I put my clothes?”</p><p>There were a few seconds of total silence before he poked his head out. “Wait, so this is your clothing compartment? Really? But it’s <em>enormous</em>… there’s enough room to store at least 5,000 sets of clothes in here, do you really need all that space?”</p><p>Now it was her turn to be utterly dumbstruck. “Wait, room for <em> how many </em>-?” </p><p>“I think it would be more efficient to use this compartment for sleeping instead… but I guess that’s up to your sector’s legislation…”</p><p>She couldn’t even begin to think of a response to that, so she didn’t try. She just kind of stood there, watching him as he stepped out of her closet and took a slow, curious look around at all of her furniture.</p><p>“Your workspace is kind of cluttered… you might want to clear it out a bit before it becomes a serious hazard.” He turned back to her. “Where’s your work station, by the way?”</p><p>“My…My what now...?”</p><p>“Your <em> work station...</em>?” He raised his eyebrow incredulously at her, as if it was the most obvious thing. “You know, where you assemble and perform maintenance on the equipment sent to you by the recycling committee? And then ship it off to whatever department needs it, so they can pay you your rations and supplies every week?” </p><p>“...Oh.” She had many questions and more than a few <em> concerns </em> at this point. “We, uh…we don’t... <em> do </em> that here, Tee…” </p><p>He stood silently there for a while, taking a couple more glances around the room, and then answered with a soft “Huh,” and nothing else.</p><p>She couldn’t really blame him, though. She was on the exact same confusing and awkward boat that he was.</p><p>“... Hey, Tee?” She piped up, throwing out one last attempt to lighten the mood at least a tiny bit. “If you, uh… if you think you’d be more comfortable sleeping in my closet, then... that’s fine with me…”</p><p>She felt her entire face flush as she heard those words leave her mouth, and he turned back to look at her.</p><p>And to her very intense relief, he smiled.</p><p>“Really? Thank you, I appreciate it!”</p><p><em> ‘Don’t smile about it like that, you weirdo,’ </em> she mumbled internally before offering him her hand. “Come on, let’s go back for that tea.”</p><p>“...Ah, that’s right! I almost forgot it was still out there!” His face brightened up even more and he took it eagerly. “We still have a lot of catching up to do, don’t we?”</p><p>“Oh, you bet we do.” She squeezed his hand tighter and dragged him firmly along behind her, smiling slyly. “And I have a few pertinent questions ready for <em> you</em>, mister…”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Fruit</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ringo and Tee help each other out in the kitchen.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>a oneshot idea born of the majesty that is This scene: https://twitter.com/minunlike/status/1340412968425537536<br/><br/><br/>the thought of tee getting ridiculously defensive over something minor is both so cute and so potentially Painful that it wouldn't leave my mind alone, so here we Are! also I should probably make clear that the all of the teerin in here is written as an Established Relationship? I forgot to add that tag last time so I'll do it now &gt;_&lt; also this oneshot is a lot longer than the first one, I had perhaps a bit Too much fun with it...<br/><br/>Please Enjoy~! (also psst maybe also. consider adding a little teerin of your own to the overall puyo fanwork archive. pretty please? the popularity-content ratio for this ship is honestly Depressing sometimes...)<br/></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“~~<em> ♪ ~~♪” </em></p><p>Ringo hummed and whistled cheerily to herself as she stood at the kitchen counter, chopping assorted pieces of produce and packing them away in little tupperware containers. </p><p>It was early morning, her favorite time for this sort of mundane task. The house was still fairly quiet, and the kitchen window gave her a lovely view of the beautiful sunrise. Today was a Sunday to boot, which meant she didn’t even have to worry about going to school after she was done here. It was almost too perfect.</p><p>She was so wrapped up in her work that it made her oblivious to any other sounds in the house… that is, until someone knocked three times on the wall next to the kitchen doorway, just loud enough to get her attention for the voice that followed.</p><p>“Permission to enter?”</p><p>This had happened enough times by now that it no longer surprised her. She answered him in her usual passive singsong voice without looking away from the cutting board.</p><p>“You don’t have to do that here, Tee, just come on in<em> ~♪ </em>.”</p><p>“R-Right, sorry.” She heard him enter and walk across the room before stopping right next to her, then silence for a short moment or two before he spoke up again. “What are you doing?”</p><p>“Oh, just chopping up some fruits and veggies so we can have them for lunches later,” she said, and then followed up with a good-natured chuckle. “But come on, you’ve been staying here for How long now? Two weeks? Almost three? You’re still doing that whole Permission thing with us, even after all the times we’ve told you you’re fine without it?”</p><p>“19 days,” he muttered back, his shame almost palpable. “I can’t help it, okay? The royal retainers drilled that protocol into me for <em> years </em> while they were training me to be the Tetris King’s replacement. The Starship Academy had that policy too… so it’s not that easy for me to stop, even if you tell me-” </p><p>“Hey, hey, it’s alright,” she assured him, using her free hand to reach over and pat him on the shoulder, then went back to chopping, all without looking up from the counter. “You’re still getting used to things here in this world, it’s a learning process. You’re fine, I promise we’re not holding it against you.”</p><p>That seemed to calm him down somewhat, though not completely. “Thanks… I’ll try to remember next time.”</p><p>“Mmhm~.” She hummed an affirmation as she finished cutting up the last of the cucumber, and began to divvy up the slices between all of the containers. In the middle of this, a sudden thought popped into her head and she turned to look at him. “Oh hey, Tee. You haven’t had a chance to try cucumber yet, have y-”</p><p>Her brain and body froze mid-sentence as it processed the sight before it. Tee was standing there, wearing one of her school uniform jackets in place of his own purple-and-white coat.</p><p>He stared back in confusion at her behavior, but then seemed to realize the cause and glanced down at it with a sheepish smile. “Oh, t-this? I ran out of clean suit jackets, and I found this in your clothing compa-... uh, your <em> closet </em>, s-so I thought I’d borrow it while I get some of my laundry done. It’s so comfortable that I honestly forgot it wasn’t mine, haha...”</p><p><em> Don’t think too hard on that, Ringo, </em> her mind snapped at her. <em> Don’t do it. Don’t make it weird. </em></p><p>“I’m sorry, I should have asked you beforehand. But I didn’t want to go searching the house for you while I was… well, um.” His face flushed as he gave her a vague hand gesture that made it clear exactly what he meant. “So I decided I’d just borrow it briefly until I found an alternative. Is that okay…?”</p><p>
  <em> Shut up, Ringo. it’s not that deep. Cease. Desist. Go Directly To Jail. Do Not Pass Go. Do Not Collect- </em>
</p><p>“Uhh.” It took her mind a few seconds to reboot itself, after which she jolted back to reality and gave him a shaky little nod. “Uh, yeah… yeah, yeah, it’s cool, no problem.” Feeling her face heat up already, she turned and threw herself back into cucumber-packing. </p><p>The morning carried on like that for a while, the atmosphere growing gradually less awkward and more comfortable as Ringo slowly but surely became more okay with the thought of her boyfriend borrowing her clothes <em> and doing absolutely nothing else with them, get your head out of the gutter young lady </em>. </p><p>Soon enough, she was back to her cheery humming again, until-</p><p>“Is there anything I can help with?”</p><p>After such a long stretch of quiet, his voice made her jump. She half-expected him to laugh at her like Maguro probably would have in this situation, and breathed an internal sigh of relief when he didn’t. Quickly recovering, she pulled out a second cutting board and set it down on the counter in front of him, right beside hers.</p><p>“Know how to handle a knife?”</p><p>He nodded. “It’s been a few years since the last time I was put on culinary duty, so I might be a little rusty... But I can do that.”</p><p>Her smile widened immediately, and she took another knife identical to hers from the rack. She set it down on the empty cutting board, picked out the biggest tomato she could find to put next to it, and then patted the space to invite him over.</p><p>“Here, you can be the tomato-slicer,” she said, fighting back a giggle as she watched him pick the knife up and study it with intense intrigue. “We like to slice ours kinda thick in this house, but don’t worry about that too much. Today you’re just getting acquainted with our tools of the trade, okay?”</p><p>She gave him an encouraging wink and turned to grab her own tomato, ready and eager to assist him with a Visual Demonstration. Having done this so many times before that she could practically do it in her sleep, she took her knife and held the fruit steady before deftly cutting it up into several fat, juicy slices.</p><p>“This is a pretty good size slice to aim for, I think. But that’s for later, just do whatever’s comfy for you this time.” She gave him a thumbs up and went back to work at her own station.</p><p>“B-But… what do I do with the waste, then? Or with whatever doesn’t pass inspection?”</p><p>“We don’t do inspections here, Tee. You’ll do fine. If we can’t use it, we’ll just... chuck it in the compost heap outside.” She punctuated the answer with a wave of her hand. “Or give it to Ris, he’ll eat just about anything that won’t kill him. That, or maybe he’ll use it in one of his weird experiments.”</p><p>Tee didn’t say anything else afterward, so she figured that was the end of it, and started humming another happy little tune to herself as she got started with the bell peppers. She got into a nice little rhythm of cutting out stems, removing the seeds, slicing the peppers in half, cutting them into little strips...</p><p>...And the next thing she knew, there was a red, juicy, pulpy, seedy mess splattered all over her. And the counter in front of her, and probably on a bunch of other things in the immediate area.</p><p>Once she’d gotten over the initial shock of it, she looked wordlessly toward the only possible source… sure enough, there was Tee, looking just as shocked as she was, staring down at the pulpy remains of the tomato still firmly crushed under his hand before turning slowly to meet her gaze.</p><p>If this were a sitcom, the silence that followed would’ve been worthy of a laugh track that went on for a good half-minute. But reality wasn’t nearly that merciful, and they were left with only each other and the muted tweeting of the birds outside, until one of them found the courage to be the first to say something.</p><p>“I-I…” It was Tee, his voice a weak stammer. “I… I didn’t think I was pressing down that hard…”</p><p>Hearing him speak, her own courage suddenly came flooding back all at once.</p><p>“Well <em> jeez </em> , what were you trying to do to that poor tomato?” She meant it lightheartedly, but in retrospect, her lingering shock might have made her sound a bit harsh. “You’re supposed to slice it, not <em> smash </em> it!”<br/>
<br/>
“I-I know, that wasn’t my intention! I didn’t expect it to be that fragile!” </p><p>“Well, it’s a tomato. It’s a lot softer and more fragile than an apple, you gotta be more gentle when you hold it down... do you really not have <em> any </em> kind of soft fruit back in your world?” </p><p>“N-No! Nothing <em> that </em> soft, at least!” His voice began rising as he grew more defensive. “Most of the produce in our world requires a substantial amount of physical force to cut into, so I just… I-I don’t know! I swear I didn’t expect it to do that!”</p><p>“I know, Tee, I get it. I was just <em> surprised </em>, is all! It’s not every day I get to see a tomato explode like that!” She couldn’t hold back her amused snickering even though he looked so genuinely agitated, which only seemed to upset him more. </p><p>“D-Don’t laugh, this isn’t funny! It’s embarrassing enough that I created all this waste when I was supposed to be helping-”</p><p>“Tee, it’s fine, it’s not a big deal.”</p><p>“-but it also made a gigantic mess all over your work station-”</p><p>“Seriously, Tee, it isn’t that-”</p><p>“-which creates more work and wastes more time and does the exact opposite of help, just because I didn’t stop for a second to consider that something like this might-”</p><p>She heard his voice crack, and at that point, all lighthearted joking went right out the window. At that point, the rest of the world was put on hold.</p><p>“Hey, hey, enough...” She put one arm around him and lightly tugged him closer to her, a move she knew she could count on to stun him speechless immediately and without fail. “Come on, Tee... c’mere.”</p><p>He let her pull him into a hug, though he rigidly refused to return it or look her way. But she’d counted on that too, and it didn’t deter her.</p><p>“I’m sorry I laughed at you. It wasn’t cool of me to make you feel like you’re wrong for being upset, even if I don’t understand why.” She lifted a hand up to stroke his hair. “But I promise, you didn’t do anything wrong. It was one tomato, no one in this house is gonna miss it. We buy and sell those guys for a living, we couldn’t run out of them if we tried.”</p><p>The stubborn act went on a little longer before he finally relented and hugged her back, muffling a small, frustrated whine into her shirt.</p><p>“But… your clothes… I took your jacket without asking, and... now it’s…”</p><p>“It’s just a jacket. It’s machine-washable, so it should be good as new after we wash it. And even if it doesn’t survive the Tomato Apocalypse, I have twelve more just like it in my dresser."</p><p>She added an airy little chuckle to try and ease the mood. It seemed to help a bit, as she felt him start to loosen his near-death grip on her.</p><p>"If you ever need to borrow one again, by the way... don’t even worry about asking. Just take it, it’s fine... as long as there’s at least one more left for me. If I go to school without it, I might as <em> well </em> be naked as far as they’re concerned!” </p><p>He relaxed little by little as she spoke, which made her feel a bit better about joking with him like this again.</p><p>“Speaking of <em> surviving </em> -” she pulled away and looked him over at arm’s length, suddenly anxious. “-What about <em> you </em>, huh? That knife didn’t slip and hurt you, did it?” She rushed to grab a dish towel and thrust it into his hands. “Are there any open cuts hiding under all this tomato juice?”</p><p>Apparently he’d also only just now considered that, and began checking himself for injury as he wiped the remaining tomato debris off of him.</p><p>“... No, I’m not feeling any,” he finally concluded in his default Cool Professional Captain voice, almost as if none of that morning’s transgressions had ever even happened. “There could be a minor laceration somewhere, but nothing deep enough to draw blood, or even cause any pain. Definitely nothing deep enough to warrant any sort of medical intervention.”</p><p>Hearing that, she let out a long and heavy sigh of relief. She was probably overreacting with this whole thing, sure, but… considering the track record of the concerned party for <em> trivializing his own health </em>, she felt more than justified.</p><p>“Thank goodness…”</p><p>She sighed happily again, and pulled him back into a tight embrace. This one he readily melted into, and returned just as tightly. For a while they stood like that, quietly content, and for that moment worried over nothing but each other.</p><p>“I’m sorry for worrying you,” Tee eventually said, slipping out of his captain voice and back into the one that betrayed his honest emotions. “I’m sorry for all of this, I just... j-just... ugh..."</p><p>“I know,” Ringo replied softly and easily. “It’s okay. I know this isn’t easy for you.”</p><p>“Even though you tell me I’m doing nothing wrong, I can’t… I know in my head that it’s different here, but sometimes I still can’t make my <em> heart </em> understand it. Does that make sense…?”</p><p>“Yeah, I getcha! Like I said, it’s all a <em> process </em>... It won’t happen all at once.”</p><p>He looked like he wanted to give her another rebuttal, but in the end he simply sighed and nodded instead.</p><p>“...Yeah. Thank you, Ringo.” </p><p>“Mmhm, no prob.” She leaned up to give him a quick peck on the cheek before pulling away to go and procure a pair of cleaning rags, one of which she tossed to him. “Now let’s clean this mess up together, okay?”</p><p>He caught the rag and clenched it, eyes lighting up with renewed determination.</p><p>“Of course. Ready when you are!"</p><p>---</p><p>…</p><p>“So uh, is this…?”</p><p>Ringo stared curiously down at the single fruit on the counter while Tee smiled and nodded proudly.</p><p>“That it is. This fruit is one of our kingdom’s most widely cultivated crops.” </p><p>It was purple, about the size of a strawberry, with an outer texture more reminiscent of citrus fruits. But more importantly and incredibly, the shape of the thing was quite nearly a perfect cube.</p><p>“It’s like a berry… a Squerry, if you will,” she said, giggling in amusement at her clever little pun.</p><p>“Whoa, how did you know that?” Tee turned back to her with a look of pleasant and entirely genuine surprise. “Have you been borrowing my books from the ship?”</p><p>Her own facial emotions went from confusion to realization to Incredulous Anger as her brain put the pieces together.</p><p>“H-Hold on… no way, you mean that’s <em> actually what you call them!? </em>”</p><p>Her reaction got a full-on burst of laughter out of Tee, a sound so rare and adorable that she couldn’t help but join in with him, promptly getting over the inner turmoil of that stupidly implausible occurrence.</p><p>Which only made her even more unprepared to have Tee nudge her up to the counter and then hand her a cutting knife.</p><p>“Go on, give it a try.”</p><p>Fired up by that perceived challenge, she took the knife from him and eagerly went to it.</p><p>...And couldn’t make more than a tiny scratch in it. She kept trying, though, holding it down to keep it steady, and managed to slice about an eighth of the way through before her arms gave out on her, forcing her to stop.</p><p>“Hoo… holy heck... you really… really weren’t kidding, huh…” She let herself rest a few short seconds, and would have gone right back to it if Tee hadn’t held an arm out to stop her.</p><p>“Don’t, you’ll injure yourself if you keep it up. Let me.”</p><p>She couldn’t exactly fight him in her state, so she let him. She sat there and watched him saw away at it just as aggressively as she had, only with far more strength, precision, and most importantly Success. But even though he’d managed to actually cut the thing in half, he looked almost as exhausted and out of breath as her by the end of it.</p><p>“Here…” he panted and offered one of the halves to her. “Try it… tell me what you think…”</p><p>She took it from him and popped it in her mouth, not even daring to try and chew it up. Instead, she defaulted to sucking on it like a lozenge while she watched him struggle to catch his breath. It tasted nice, she had to admit. It was sweet and a little tart, like a piece of hard candy. </p><p>By the time Tee was able to speak again without gasping for air, the slice had finally dissolved enough to swallow and be done with it.</p><p>“So how is it?” He asked her with almost childish excitement... and as weird and ridiculous and <em> exhausting </em> as this whole ordeal had been for her, seeing him so genuinely, excitedly happy about something from his own world made it all more than worth it.</p><p>“It’s good, I like it!” she told him with a well-meaning smile, if a little exasperated. “But jeez, Tee, these things are like friggin’ <em>rocks</em>! How do you guys eat 'em like that?”</p><p>“We don’t,” he said frankly. “Normally, we crush them into powder and mix it with water. But Jay and Elle insist on having theirs sliced like this instead, otherwise they refuse to eat it at all. Kind of strange that they always ask for so <em>much</em>, when I think about it…”</p><p>And for a moment he seemed to do exactly that, looking suddenly troubled for reasons Ringo couldn’t even try to guess, before putting it out of mind again.</p><p>But that was another can of worms for another day.</p><p><em> ‘Welp,’ </em> she concluded in her own mind, <em> ‘If nothing else, I can now say that I </em> completely <em> understand the Tomato Explosion. </em>’</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Work</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Tee does some Retail Work as thanks to the Andous for their hospitality.</p><p>Ringo is not pleased.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I was thinking of doing a lot more (very srs and angsty) stuff with this one, but I think I'll save that for the next chapter instead -v- for now have another short thing that's just kinda silly, kinda soft? and also kinda based on an old twitter hc thread</p><p>https://twitter.com/minunlike/status/1166544432335859713 (this one)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I'll ask one more time before I let you go, hon... are you <em> sure </em> you'll be alright working the register here by yourself?"</p><p>Tee gave the kindly older woman another nod, his smile just as bright and eager now as it had been when he’d first walked up to her and offered to help with work around the store.</p><p>"Don't worry about me, I'll be perfectly fine! Where I come from, processing financial transactions like this is one of the first skills they teach us at the Childrens' Service Preparatory Academy!"</p><p>"Yes, dear, you've told me already," she said with a good-natured little laugh. "Well, I've got my own work to get back to, so I'll leave you to it. But if you run into any trouble, don't be afraid to come to me or one of the other employees for help, okay?"</p><p>"Yes, Ma'am!" he answered emphatically and gave her a salute. "I promise you my very best service!"</p><p>She left him with one more polite nod and a small wave before heading back to her own task out by the front entrance. But first, she met up with her extremely disgruntled daughter outside the doorway.</p><p>"<em>Mom</em>!" Ringo blurted out with an indignant stamp of her foot. "The idea was to <em>stop</em> <em>him </em>from working the front checkout, remember?"</p><p>Her mother just smiled and shrugged. “Sorry, he just looked so eager and <em> excited </em> about it that I couldn’t say no! Besides, we’re short on staff now that the holidays are over and the seasonal people are gone, so we really do need any help we can get.”</p><p>“Yeah, I get that part, but just-” Ringo sighed and held her head to keep her irritation at bay. “He’s <em> always doing this</em>, Mom. He’ll bend over backwards doing what he thinks will make everyone <em> else </em> happy, without ever stopping to think about his <em> own </em> health. And as cool as that might be for everyone else, I really don’t want him applying that work ethic <em> here </em> of all places, okay...?”</p><p>“Yes, yes, I understand,” her mother smiled sympathetically. “I do intend to pay him for the trouble, and your father and I will both be here to make sure he’s all right. Trust me, he’ll be just fine. Now <em> move it</em>, young lady, you’ll be late for school if you keep dawdling here.”</p><p>“I’m gonna hold you both to that!” She hoisted her backpack over her shoulders and started off, maintaining eye contact as she went. “I’m serious, he will <em> absolutely </em> work himself sick if you let him! Don’t let him skip his breaks! Make him take his breaks even if you have to <em> drag </em> him from that register by <em> force</em>!”</p><p>Her mother just kept nodding and waving as Ringo disappeared around the street corner, her insistent rambles following only a few seconds behind, and then heaved a sigh once she was gone.</p><p>“Honestly, Ringo… it’s sweet that you worry so much about that boy, but don’t you think you’re going a little overboard?”</p><p> </p><p>If only she knew about the time “that boy” had willingly almost <em> damned himself to a literal eternity of solitude </em> at the drop of a hat, without a second thought, all because he felt sorry for the plight of an old man he maybe sort of knew.</p><p> </p><p>Because that was just the sort of person Tee was. Any regard for his own life would go out the window in a heartbeat if he thought it meant making someone else’s life better.</p><p>It irritated her to no end… but it was also something she loved about him. It was part of him, and so as irritating as it may be, she loved it all the same.</p><p>Not that that made <em>dealing</em> with it any easier.</p><p>.</p><p>.</p><p>“I told you I’m perfectly fine here, Ringo.” She could hear the sigh in his voice despite the school courtyard’s lousy mobile reception. “You don’t have to do all this-”</p><p>“Yeah, well I <em> wanna </em>,” she shot back a little louder than intended, and quickly looked around to make sure she hadn’t blown her cover before continuing. “Are you taking your breaks every two hours? Did you get the packed lunch I left in the fridge for you?”</p><p>“<em>Yes,</em> Ringo, I’ve got it right here,” he replied with a slightly indignant flatness, like a kid being lectured. “Seriously, this feels a bit excessive-”</p><p>“You’ve forfeited your right to talk to me about <em> excessive</em>, Mr. <em> Let-Me-Be-The-Keeper</em>.”</p><p>A long silence and then another sigh, heavier this time. “...Point taken.”</p><p>She waited for him to follow up with something else, but he didn’t, so to avoid even more silence, she dropped her overbearing sass and began to speak more gently.</p><p>“Listen, I’m sorry for being such a nag, okay? It’s just… there’s a reason no one else wanted to work the front checkout. It gets <em> crazy busy </em> up there, and customers can turn nasty when they have to wait in long lines. Plus all the restocking and reshelving we have to do after the holiday rush, I just-” She had to take a moment to catch her breath. “I wanna make sure you don’t overdo it to the point that you’re hurting yourself…”</p><p>“Ringo…” His voice was now soft and devoid of sass as well. “There’s really no need to worry so much, this kind of work is-”</p><p>“Yeah, I know it’s apparently normal in your world for people to work themselves stupid, but-” She stopped herself before she could fall back into belligerence again. “Sorry, sorry. I know you can handle the work fine, it’s not like I don’t trust you to take care of yourself… well, okay, maybe it kinda is like that a<em> little</em>, b-but you’re following my logic with this, right? I’m not saying-”</p><p>“It's <em>okay</em>, it’s okay, I read you loud and clear,” He cut in with his little amused chuckle that never failed to make her heart feel pleasantly warm. “Thank you… I’ll try harder to put your concerns to rest, I promise.”</p><p>“I’m gonna hold you to that, Mister,” she said with a lighter air of teasing, her mood finally lifted enough for their usual casual lunch-hour chatting. “So, how’s the work been going so far? You got the hang of working our clunky old cash register yet?”</p><p>“Yes, it's very easy to operate!” he replied, now back in full Eager Employee mode. “The morning was actually a lot slower than projected, so they’ve been having me assist them with stacking boxes around the shop-”</p><p>Practically on cue, she heard a distant but very loud crash from his end of the line, followed by an equally distant-but-very-loud voice that she recognized as one of the current part-time stocking girls.</p><p>
  <em> “Who left this <b>ginormous gaping hole</b> in the cola display!?" </em>
</p><p>Given the context clues, it didn’t take long for Ringo’s brain to put the pieces together.</p><p>“...T-spin setup?”</p><p>“Uh…!” Bingo. “Y-Yeah, I need to go now. Bye, I love you, see you after school-”</p><p>“<em>You know they don’t make T-shaped soda boxes here, right-?? </em>”</p><p>-... But he’d already hung up by then, rendering her point moot. Hearing the telltale footsteps of a school staff member who’d been alerted to her rule-breaking mobile phone use, she stood and braced herself for what would probably be her fourth detention this month.</p><p>At least she’d been able to say all the important things she needed to, so this one wouldn’t be quite so bad.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>a few of the general headcanons in these fics are taken from an old twitter thread I wrote a year or so ago: https://twitter.com/minunlike/status/1166228452414021632</p><p>I really do wish we had as much lore about the tetris kingdom in general as we do about the puyo worlds...</p></blockquote></div></div>
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